


Out of Pandora's Box

by ScarfyTheShipster, sinistercollyflower



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Borderlands Big Bang 2017, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Polyamory, Post-Canon, Promethea - Freeform, Shenanigans, Vault Hunter, Wedding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-12 18:53:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12966135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarfyTheShipster/pseuds/ScarfyTheShipster, https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinistercollyflower/pseuds/sinistercollyflower
Summary: Ahhhh, so did you think that was the end of our story? The heroes go into the light, the lady got the girl, and they all lived happily ever after?Every vault is unique. Dangerous. Like any adventure worth having, glory is not without risk. There is no true end, no ever after, until your final breath- especially on this side of the galaxy.The con artist turned vault hunter and the company man turned CEO were not to part ways so soon after all.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Shoutout to my lovely artist [Nokikissa](http://nokikissa.tumblr.com) on tumblr as well as my beta [Enderham](http://enderham.tumblr.com) on Tumblr! Thank you guys so much! :D

Ahhhh, so did you think that was the end of our story? The heroes go into the light, the lady got the girl, and they all lived happily ever after? 

Every vault is unique. Dangerous. Like any adventure worth having, glory is not without risk. There is no true end, no ever after, until your final breath- especially on this side of the galaxy.

The con artist turned vault hunter and the company man turned CEO were not to part ways so soon after all.

-~-

Looking back, it should've been obvious.

Rhys blindly landed hard on his feet, the impact turning one of his ankles and sending a wave of pain up his legs with a pained shriek. The intense flash of light from the vault still echoed across his eyelids, pulsing with imprints of colors no longer there. "Ugh, what happened?"

The others stirred from their various ungrateful landings, stumbling and rubbing their eyes as well. Vaughn was first to recover. "We just went into the Vault of the Traveler. I guess we uh, traveled."

 

Rhys tried to be upset but struggled to keep a stupid grin from appearing on his face. "Very funny," growled Fiona, finally able to get her bearings as well from facedown on the ground.

They were on uneven rocky terrain, the air too hot to breathe comfortably. Violet veins of lava ran between crevices under their feet. They were in a tall cave, spacious but somehow stifling from the lack of open sky or stars. It continued into the dimly lit darkness, fading to a dark and murky purple in the distance.

"We can't go back." Athena pointed to where they'd come from, an imprint of the vault set in stone against the back of the cave. It pulsed faintly even as August pounded his first against it, testing it. 

"This place reminds me of Elpis," commented Janey. "Except I feel heavier."

August jumped experimentally. "Same, but I thought it was the nachos I ate like an hour ago."

"I wouldn't rule those out either," pointed out Sasha. "As Vaughn said, we traveled- but where to?"

"No idea!" chirped Gortys cheerfully.

Rhys's ECHO-Eye finally came online. "Wow, bad connection out here. We're on Promethea, a planet that does in fact, have more mass and thus more gravitational force than Pandora. Aaaaaaand our gate is charging before we can go back."

 

All anyone on Pandora knew was that however bad Pandora was, Promethea was worse. Shortages on food, supplies, shelter on top of it having been primarily a military territory for Atlas made any tales of it downright unpleasant. Atlas was supposed to have raided the planet already for any treasure worthwhile- but Vaults work in mysterious ways. What looked like nothing could be a blessing from the gods.

"Nooooo, we have to go back!" groaned Janey. "Bad ECHONet connection!"

"It'll be charging for uh." Rhys grimaced. "Thirty six hours."

Athena narrowed her eyes. "This planet should hold the remnants of Atlas." She held her shield at the ready, taking the lead. The others followed behind, weapons at the ready if they had them. Athena wordlessly gave Janey a pistol and Janey stared at it a little too long. "Wrong brand?"

"No. No it's just, you know. Atlas. You're not-"

"Honey, I've got the murdering out of my system. Promise." 

The cave continued in a long tunnel for almost twenty minutes. It was eerie and silence settling over the group as they followed the currents of purple lava to the end. Gortys was in Loader Bot's arms beside Vaughn, who was happily carrying a new sniper rifle and shield. "You'll protect me, right? I can't go big again!"

"Of course," said Vaughn and Loader Bot together, making Sasha snort.

Finally the tunnel opened up to a cavern almost the size of Hollow Point, and August summed it up rather eloquently. "Well, shit."

The molten purple flowed to a vast lake, fed by other tributaries from other sides of the shore. Four white sleek support beams with curved Eridian writings held up a platform with the alien equivalent of a small town above the lake. Eridians floated to and fro, going inside structures on their platform. The entire area was purple and white and notably densely populated with Eridians, making weapons, standing in groups, living in their natural habitat.

Across the city was an opening, with a night sky full of foreign stars shining down on the gap. It seemed to be the only way out. 

"We need to get across," said Fiona. They started creeping along the outskirts, hoping they'd remain unseen. "But what if they see us?"

Rhys brushed his hair off his face with a grin. "Oh, leave that to me!

"There's not much activity out here, so we have to act fast before we’re noticed. I'll need cooperation, positive attitudes, and a fishing net. First, we'll need to split up. Vaughn will take position high up behind some rocks, legendary sniper at the ready. Athena, August, and Sasha, our best fighters, will go ahead of the rest of us for any incoming Eridians to draw attention off of us. Vaughn will snipe a support beam or two, getting the city to tilt and crumble, causing enough chaos that the rest of us go unnoticed. If they come after Vaughn then the fighting group will have to run and help him while the rest of us get out. If things get dicey, Fiona will throw a flashbang I know she always has on her person to distract them. By then we'll be close enough to escape that we can bottleneck the door. We’ll need to prepare for monsters outside and in here so just to be safe assume they flank us and-”

"We made it, Rhys." Sasha gestured to the opening a few yards away.

"Great plan though!" said Gortys. 

Rhys pouted as they stepped out of the cavern. "It would've worked."

 

They hadn't escaped quite yet. A few Eridians saw them near the edge and fired energy blasts from their staffs, almost hitting Gortys. "Run!" August and Sasha held them off for the others to make it out, and the Eridians lost interest once they crossed the border.

The surface of Promethea looked bleak, but better than being trapped with Eridians. The air was slightly cooler and a collective sigh of relief swept through the group. Other glowing violet structures in the distance seemed to imply even more Eridians. "Is this their home planet or something?" asked Fiona.

"No, it can't be." Vaughn folded his arms. "Hyperion always said that Atlas had found E-Tech and other Eridian treasures here, but it didn't used to be swarming with them. There should be nothing but Atlas here."

August gestured towards a small cluster of lights a couple miles away. "Could be humans over there." He started off in that direction. 

"I'm scared," said Gortys fretfully, hugging Rhys around his legs. "What if we don't make it back home? After everything you did to rescue me-"

"Gortys, it's okay," reassured Rhys. "This is what vault hunting is about. We'll be just fine."

Suddenly an explosive knocked them all off their feet, the gas leaking out of it forcing them unconscious. 

-~-

 

"Is this a game?" asked Gortys's childlike voice. "I don't think now is a time for sleeping!"

A gruff female voice replied. "Tell me who you are and why you're here!"

"Okay! My name is Gortys! We opened a vault on Pandora, and...."

Rhys struggled to open his eyes, groaning as he tried to breathe. He watched Gortys talk to a woman standing over her, not scared at all. Rhys squinted his eyes and blinked several times, because he must've been seeing things.

The woman had purple translucent wings, and swirling tattoos down her left side, all the way from her neck to her calf. She wasn't particularly tall, but her wings loomed high over their heads, puffed up to seem intimidating. 

Athena was the first to recover, attempting to knock the Siren off her feet but Janey pulled her back at the last second so she only landed a scrape. "Hey!" exclaimed the Siren, pushing herself off the ground. "Okay, okay, you guys aren't evil! My bad."

Fiona stood up and folded her arms. "What do you want?!"

"Chill!" The Siren put her hands up. Despite her attempts to be intimidating, she was barely over five feet tall and had freckles across her nose. Being a Siren though, it seemed best not to underestimate her. "I've never seen anyone come out of that cave before. It should be impossible! Your little robot tells me you opened a vault and came in through the back, so I'm good! We're fine! I just uh, just generally shoot and ask questions later when I see mysterious figures approaching my town!"

August cocked his pistol. "Why shouldn't WE shoot first and ask questions later?"

"You just got here and there's not gonna be anyone else to help you if you try to shoot me!" she hissed.

Janey nodded. "Put it down, August. Let's calm down." 

The tension eased as they stood up, weapons down. The Siren calmed down too, standing in the middle of their circle. For a first person to meet on Promethea, at least she was trying to be civil. "Who are you people?"

Sasha stayed on alert. "Who needs to know?!"

The Siren rolled her eyes. "Uh, me? I just fucking-"

“I’m Rhys!” being rather proud of his status, this seemed to Rhys like a great time to bring it up. Impress her. ”A few months ago, I became the CEO of Atlas." 

That was definitely the right thing to say; she brightened up. "Atlas- you came back for us?!"

"Uh- well, by accident it seems," Rhys admitted.

All hostility was gone. 

"A new CEO!" she exclaimed. "Oh thank god! Atlas went bankrupt and Hyperion abandoned us, leaving everyone here to die! And then- then the Eridians came back for all their E-Tech and we had no support! You're- you're going to help us, right?"

This didn't seem the time to mention Rhys only had one employee to his name with some prototypes he hadn't even started production on. The biodome was the only facility he had that wasn't severely damaged. He'd have to take what he could get, forge some alliance to get the manpower he needed, so he chose to remain silent.

Rhys grew strangely quiet and some of the group remained on edge, but Vaughn nodded. "Sounds like what I'm going through, honestly. Helios crashed into Pandora and burned. I'm the leader of a bunch of ex-Hyperion refugees."

She extended her hand to Vaughn. "A bandit lord! Awesome! My name's Cassandra!"

"I used to work for a crime organization," said August. He pointed at Fiona and Sasha. "Before they tell you differently, those two are hustlers, and they're good enough they fooled ME."

"I'm a mechanic!"Janey chimed in . 

Athena awkwardly folded her arms. "I'm- well I WAS a vault hunter- and an assassin. I also had a food service job. Was awful."

Janey nudged Athena. "It lasted two days!"

"Worst two days of my life."

Loader Bot was the only one who hadn't been introduced. "Hi."

Cassandra took them all in. "Criminals, hired guns, a mechanic, a bandit lord, and a half robot CEO. You're exactly what I need! Come on, follow me!”

At first glance, the planet seemed devoid of creatures. However, as Rhys focused, he could make out inky shapes moving in the darkness, crawling along the surface with almost no silhouette to give them away. His eye implant focused on one, scanning it while it was still in his field of vision:

Name: ????  
Speed: fast  
Mostly Harmless

Rhys pointed at the shapes. "What're those things?"

"Oh they're harmless." Cassandra shrugged. "In the daytime they kinda look like giant ferrets. Most dangerous wildlife has learned not to come this way."

Cassandra's town, as it turned out, was the ruins of a large Atlas ship, cracked in half with the entry in the bottom. The scraped gray and red paint was still recognizable in the night by the few lit windows, like an extra large version of an airplane that tapered into a rocket made for space. They crossed a bridge made of chain link and wooden slats over another bioluminescent purple body of liquid. It's name was still recognizable across the side as the ELECTRA. Cassandra shifted aside a few pieces of scrap that served as a door at the entrance. "Of all the daughters of Atlas, the Electra is one of the very few remaining ships. After we were forced to stop production after funding and resources were cut off, we made our base in here."

"The deja-vu is killing me," said Vaughn.

Sasha was one of the first in, examining wires that ran along the ceiling. "It's pretty cool, to be honest. Don't know why Handsome Jack would go out of his way to abandon such a great project. Not that I think he should've taken over. But. You know. We know what it's like to have lives ruined by Jack." 

"Hear hear," said Cassandra sadly, leading them into a dimly lit section towards the back engines. "So many of us have died needlessly. Jack is likely as cursed a name here as it is on Pandora."

Athena drummed her fingers on her arm, unmoved by the entirely new planet she was standing on. "We need a plan of action. If we help you, how many people are we moving? You got any firepower? I personally want to explore, actually get something out of this trip."

Janey frowned, but it went unnoticed by Cassandra. "If you're on a treasure hunt, then you're going alone. There's several Atlas troves I haven't been able to get out to yet. I've been stuck in this area keeping the Eridians off of us in an eternal stalemate." 

Sasha grinned. "I'm in."

"Same here," said August. 

"I'd wait until morning if I was you," Cassandra warned . 

"Why?" asked August. "Think the ferrets will eat us?"

"No, but there's some flying lizard snake things, wolfskags that were illegally bred here as weapons, as well as sentient goo that might."

Fiona raised her eyebrows. "You're kidding about the goo."

"You're right- it's actually slime."

The Electra had a few spare beds, although going by Cassandra's expression when she led them to them, they hadn't used to be spares. "Settle in, get some rest. It'll be dawn in a few hours. Except for you- Rhys. I need to talk to you."

Everyone let Janey and Athena have their own room, while the rest of them were okay with being in a larger area with more beds. August was the first asleep, mumbling something about why he would sell instead of use a vault key in the first place. 

Athena curled up with Janey after they tossed most of their clothes on the floor. She rarely allowed herself to fully relax, but slowly the alertness left her limbs as Janey tangled her own alongside Athena. "You don't want to go exploring, do you?"

"It's complicated, Athena. You know that." Janey was troubled. "I don't want to seem like I'm withholding you from living your life, or that I'm a scaredy cat, but- you know why I worry."

"I've mass murdered in reaction to someone I love being hurt." Athena's mouth twitched in a bitter smile. "You wanting to be careful is hardly unreasonable."

Janey traced her fingers over Athena's arm, still troubled. "It's a part of you, and I understand it. I was only upset because you lied."

It was a conversation they'd had before, but Athena let her muse aloud. After what she'd put Janey through, she didn't feel it was right to shut her down. "I'm sure I'll find a job I don't hate. That Rudiger guy deserved to get his greasy face grilled."

Janey grinned. "Yeah, he did."

Rhys walked with Cassandra back outside, looking over the purple pool. "Lot of purple on this planet," he said. 

"Only because of the Eridians." Cassandra folded her arms and looked out into the distance. "I know we need your help, but I also have to know you're a strong leader. Does your group respect you?"

Rhys huffed with a laugh. "Maybe two and a half do. Athena is more of a leader to them, to be honest."

"What's Atlas like on Pandora?" 

Rhys hesitated. Telling Cassandra about what Athena had done was risky, but she's find out soon enough. Maybe it would prove how strong Athena was. "Atlas was a cruel corporation. I know that coming from someone Hyperion that may sound biased, but hear me out. They tricked Athena into assassinating her own sister. She made sure none of them remained. I assure you that you're all safe- she's left that behind her now. But I only have one employee to my name. Him and a terraforming facility I turned into my home."

She absorbed it, expression passive. "Yes, Atlas could be cruel. You will have to prove you're tough. I know you're our best option, but some of my crew? Not so much."

"I understand." Rhys lowered his voice. "Not all of the others have much to gain from helping you. It'll be a combined effort. Treasure hunters don't often have many values."

"Done. You'll need firepower to get home. You have to take us with you."

They stood in silence. Suddenly Cassandra turned and beckoned Rhys towards the opposite end of the ship from everyone else. He followed her with a few backward glances, uneasy at being taken from the group. 

Several sheets of floor length plastic made a door in front of a long room, lit with intense lights. They pushed their way in and Rhys understood exactly how tight things were. Troughs of plants grew under the lights, with careful documents and watering schedules organized on a bolted down table that ran straight through the center. "This is all we have, outside of what creatures and scrap we scavenge. Promethea grows more and more unlivable by the day without outside support. The Electra was made for self sufficient space travel, but much of it was destroyed. If you want food, it's here."

The floor suddenly shook and Rhys shrieked, grabbing at the table and diving under it. The lights swung but stayed hanging as the ground undulated. Screams echoed in the plant room from Rhys as well as in the distance. Then it went still. "Is that a thing that happens often?!"

"No!"

"You guys better see this!" shouted Fiona, leading the group in various states of undress to one of the highest points on the crashed ship. 

A giant beam of light shot into the sky in the distance, a large creature prowling around it. The light faded to only a distant arch, a hauntingly familiar shape. Before anyone could comment the ground shook violently again, in time with a comet striking the surface. A light shot up from that and Sasha gasped, crouching low to steady her balance. "Are those VAULTS?"

"This is INSANE!" August took cover back inside the ship, the others following as the planet shook from impacts. "How many of these things are there?!"

"No one knows for sure," said Athena, keeping the most level head of them all."They're supposed to be rare. Not even this many were rumored to be on Pandora."

The ground stilled after a minute more. The Prometheans living on The Electra cautiously approached the group of vault hunters- and upon seeing only eight people to their twenty- started shouting. 

"THIS IS YOUR FAULT!"

"ISN'T OUR PLANET BAD ENOUGH?"

"I HAVE INSOMNIA AND I HAD JUST FALLEN ASLEEP!"

Cassandra frantically waved her arms. "Hey! Knock it off! They can get us out of here, but we have to work together!" she groaned as they kept yelling, August and Sasha especially happy to verbally spar back. "Why does no one ever believe me?!"

A Promethean leapt up close to Rhys, brandishing her metal staff at his arm. Like the rest of them, she was in old Atlas fatigues. "Give me a reason I shouldn't tear you apart for scrap!"

Rhys recoiled, hands up as Vaughn pointed his sniper back at her. "I'll provide a future for you on Pandora as Atlas's CEO! I can offer much more than you have here!"

A different member of Cassandra's crew threw a knife that Athena deflected. "Fuck Atlas! This is just a crazy scheme to get us killed!"

Janey stood as tall as she could above the crowd. She had the same determined, fierce expression as when she'd decided to rescue Athena. "If you all don't stop being dicks, none of you are invited to our wedding!"

Athena groaned. "Not MORE people!"

There was absolute silence.

"What kind of cake are you having?" timidly asked the same person who'd suggested ripping Rhys apart. 

Janey grinned. "Vanilla with strawberry filling. We couldn't decide on one flavor, so we're getting two."

The woman set her staff down. "I love frosting," she said wistfully.

Athena affectionately elbowed Janey. "We're gonna have to get two cakes for all the people you're inviting!"

"TWO CAKES!" screamed someone, sounding exactly like a psycho.

"We're in!" exclaimed a different crew member.

“That's that, then.” Cassandra shrugged and they split off to go to sleep. It was still dark, and whatever happened the next day would require energy. August, who was only dressed in a bedsheet, was the first to run back inside, tripping over it slightly as Fiona snorted.

"Hey Rhys?" Vaughn appeared at his side, pulling him back from the group headed into the ship. He had a hint of his old anxiety in his face. "Can I talk to you?"

Rhys nodded. After all this time, they hadn't really caught up. "Sure dude, of course." 

Vaughn scaled back up the ship easily, perching on the end of the rocket. He kept his chin up as he gazed into the distance and looked like he belonged- like he was strong enough to hold his own among warriors and take anything the badlands could throw at him. Rhys didn't know if he'd ever be able to get over how much Vaughn had changed. "What is it, bro?"

"I- well. I almost lost you. I thought I DID lose you when Helios crashed." Vaughn kicked his legs as he spoke. "I remember how it felt to think I'd never see you again, and how much I regretted not telling you how I felt. So. Uh."

Rhys raised his eyebrows, "Are you about to confess something?"

Vaughn grinned. "Yeah. Yep. You see, I wasn't crazy for Handsome Jack like the rest of Hyperion because I was busy obsessing over someone else."

Oh God. "Dude, everyone has had a crush on Taylor Swift at some point. Jack played her music like nonstop. No judgements. It's okay.”

That actually got a laugh out of Vaughn, easing the tension out of his shoulders. Rhys knew it wasn't it, though. "No Rhys. I liked YOU." Vaughn took his hair out of his bun and toyed with the elastic band. "I thought you were the best person ever. You were hot, charismatic, smart, and you were so confident. I was jealous but attracted too, and I didn't know what to do about it. Even on Pandora, you remember me worrying about being left behind.

"I feel like I didn't grow up until Helios crashed. It was- no, it IS hard to survive every day. Trying to avoid violence on Pandora but still having to defend my refugees. I’ve done so much I never imagined in my wildest dreams. I didn't realize how much I was missing by always comparing myself, letting myself be consumed by doubt. Sure, I can KNOW anxiety isn't productive or true. But until I was forced to become better I didn't DO anything. I had to work so hard and overcame my fears alone. I see now that my crush on you, while genuine, distracted me from focusing on me, not you."

Rhys listened closely. The idea that Vaughn liked him wasn't too far out of the realm of possibility. He enjoyed it.

Rhys smiled. "You know, I'd kinda thought about like, dating you once and awhile as a passing thought but I didn't know how to approach it. That and I was a huge douchebag. I mean I probably didn't notice you going through all that because I'm too self centered. I was a bad friend, and I'm sorry."

Vaughn waved his hand. "All good, bro. We were Hyperion even in college, remember?"

"Listen, though. I'm really proud of you." Vaughn ducked his head shyly. "No, really! You've blossomed as a person. You're the one who's outgrown us all, honestly. I mean, at this point you can't be left on the curb because you're the one throwing the party, okay?"

"That- that means a lot." Vaughn sighed. "I was worried I'd creep you out, but I just wanted to tell you."

Rhys nodded and he swallowed hard. He'd missed Vaughn so much more than he'd been allowed to express. He tentatively reached to hold Vaughn's hand with his cybernetic one, but panicked when Vaughn noticed and pulled back, smacking himself in the face. "Owww."

"Did you- wanna hold hands?" Vaughn was the surprised one now.

"I- yeah? But also hitting myself in the head seemed less awkward."

Vaughn took his hand and gave it a light squeeze. "I truly love you Rhys. In a better, purer way than I ever did way back when. I didn't realize how much until life took you from me. That being said, I'm not sure if I could date you."

"I'd change cologne brands if that helped you." Vaughn chuckled as Rhys grew serious again. “But I would honestly date you. As a best friend and lover. You'd- you're the world to me. I should’ve treasured you more.”

Vaughn's smile was bittersweet. "I’ve needed that, Rhys. I'm happy to finally be closer to you, but it's as I said. As a leader and everything, I just don't know that I'm ready for a relationship."

"It's okay, Vaughn." Rhys couldn't help it that his heart sank. He'd probably marry Vaughn on the spot if he asked. They'd been best friends so long it seemed natural. "You'll always be my best friend no matter what."

"That and you totally like Sasha."

 

Rhys scoffed. "No, it's-"

Vaughn laughed and nudged Rhys with a teasing glint in his eyes. "Yes you dooooooooooo-" 

"Okay! Yeah, I like her. But I like you too."

Rhys hesitated, fingers hovering above the pocket on his waistcoat. He could trust Vaughn. He had to. "If we're confessing things tonight, I have something of my own." Rhys pulled out a small bundle of fraying wires with a flickering blue eye implant attached. “I kept him.”


	2. Chapter 2

No one could sleep despite their best efforts and the gravity of the planet itself pulling them into their beds. Vaughn and Loader Bot tried to send a signal to Pandora with as much luck as the Prometheans had on a broken down computer. "Ugh, I can barely access the ECHONet, much less broadcast anything."

"Could we ask for help by reaching out on human social media?" suggested Loader Bot. 

"I could never get more than a couple followers," admitted Vaughn. "It wouldn't do much good."

"Abs?" asked Loader Bot.

Vaughn considered it. "I dunno. Every psycho on Pandora has a body like this. Might not draw much attention."

Sasha watched as Vaughn awkwardly tried to take a selfie on the computer webcam, fussing with his hair and trying to pose. "Amateur." She fluffed her hair and bumped him out of the way. "This is how it's done." She leaned over the counter and snapped a picture effortlessly.

"You're prettier than me!" complained Vaughn. 

"No, I just know my angles. Help me get this higher up."

"From above? Really?"

"IT WORKS OKAY!"

Gortys insisted in a selfie too, asking Vaughn to hold her. Pretty soon Vaughn was making faces and Sasha was striking poses in her goggles with her pistol drawn, both laughing and forgetting about their dangerous situation for a few minutes. “This is gonna be it,” said Vaughn. “We could die any minute and we have selfies on the EchoNet with ummmm, one like from ShadyOasis13? Oh my god his profile picture is creepy!”

Rhys watched them from the doorway with admiration. "You guys are so cute!"

Sasha, who was adjusting her goggles to look at the screen, accidentally snapped the band hard against her head. "Did you just call me cute?!"

"N-no! Uh. You- you're-" Rhys stumbled over his words as Vaughn gave him a knowing smirk. "I just- you're aesthetically pleasing!"

Sasha rolled her eyes. "Wrong. I'm drop dead gorgeous."

"Literally."

Sasha huffed and winced as she felt her injured arm, Felix-berating comments on the tip of her tongue about the injury the healing watch had caused. "This is gonna be a problem. I'd actually forgotten about it, but are there health kits around here?"

Rhys doubted there'd be any spare medicine, and he was right as they searched the ship. Most anything useful had already been looted long ago. "Sorry, Sasha."

"It's fine." Her voice wasn't pained, but Rhys knew her arm had to hurt as she cradled it. He scanned it with his eye and confirmed it was a clean break. Sasha narrowed her eyes at him. "You know I don't like when you scan me."

"Sorry. Just wanted to see how I should be trying to set that." 

"So you're not trying to like, look at my recent crimes or who I have a crush on, right?"

Rhys grinned. God, he'd missed her. "I can guess who you have a crush on."

Sasha folded her arms carefully as Rhys got together a pile of spare fabric scraps. "Who?"

"Loader bot, obviously."

Sasha laughed and let Rhys make a sling. His eye guided him in tying knots and he gently put her arm in it, supported over her shoulder. Sasha sighed. "Thanks."

"No problemo."

Sasha looked at the sling. "It's becoming harder and harder to actively not like you, you know." Her mouth twitched in a way that made Rhys's heart leap. "You Hyperion jackass."

Rhys held her non injured hand, looking down into her eyes. "Pandoran thief."

Sasha licked her lips. "Corporate douchebag."

"Lying hustler." Rhys pressed his lips to hers, smiling into their short kiss. Oh God. Finally getting close to Sasha seemed too good to be true. Rhys let a hand settle on her hip and he was relieved when she didn't pull away. "Good?" He was far too nervous about one little kiss, but considering his last romantic attempted had ended with plant pollen spewing on his own face, it was a huge improvement.

"It's been awhile, huh?" Rhys huffed and Sasha shook her head. "No, you're fine. I guess it's just odd to get close to someone without ulterior motives. Without you being a mark. Guess I'm surprised that you'd know all that about me and still want me."

Rhys felt a shift in his chest, a lightness in his head. "Well, lucky for me, maybe relationships are more about experiences than a list of traits to like. After all we've been through? You're family."

"Lucky for you?" Sasha scoffed. "You've got legs. Most people would grab a step ladder to smooch that face and ask questions later."

Rhys's cheeks lit up bright pink. Sasha was way too pretty and better than him to call him attractive. He rubbed the back of his neck and shuffled his feet. "Uhhhhh. Um. Thank you. You-you’re just, you know great and deserve so much better-"

 

“Shut up,” she said lightly, perhaps actually affected by his compliments. “I've liked you a while, okay?” It was definitely something she’d kept to herself, shaking her head a bit as she talked. “Hated that I'd like some Hyperion company man. Honestly? It’s been a lot to wrap my head around. I'm glad you've changed.” 

“I- I mean yeah. I uhhhhh.” Rhys stammered over his words and Sasha kissed him and walked away with a wink, leaving Rhys feeling wobbly on his knees. It wasn't that intense, was it? And sure Rhys teased, but had Fiona already told Sasha he liked her? Or did Sasha already know? What if she knew before Rhys did? What if Fiona knew that Sasha didn't know before Rhys knew? Did Sasha know that Fiona knew or did she not know that Fiona knew and thought Fiona didn't know but Sasha still knew all along?

He groaned. Time to stop thinking. 

"Don't get what she sees in an idiot like you."

Rhys jumped and smacked his head on a doorframe, turning around to see August standing behind him. Rhys rubbed his head and caught his breath. Just August, no blue hologram. No Jack. "How’d you know about us?!”

“Talk about your crushes somewhere not where the whole ship can hear.”

Rhys supposed he wasn't careful when talking to Vaughn. “Well, truth be told? Dunno why she’d like me either. Just lucky, I guess."

August nodded, expression unreadable. “Listen, I know she's got a sister who'll kick your ass if you hurt her. All I wanna say is good luck."

Rhys raised his eyebrows. "I have your blessing?"

August held his hands up. "Woah, not quite! Just whatever's a step below. I mean I could blow your head off for dating my ex if I was into that, but I'm a chill guy. You don't owe me money, so we're square. Figure you got enough ants in your stupid half striped pants already." 

"Thank you."

August almost seemed to regret the gesture. "Don't ever fucking mention it."

-~-

The sky gradually lightened shade by shade, throwing a soft light on the bleak planet surface. The Eridian cave was even larger than any of them had realized. "We were lucky to get out of there," commented Fiona.

"Well, you don't look for people breaking and leaving your house," pointed out Cassandra. "Getting back in will be much worse." 

Athena folded her arms, scanning the horizon. There was a cluster of buildings in the distance, across a patch of black desert and rocks. "Have those ruins been explored? Might find something useful."

Cassandra nodded. She pointed to the south. "We had another hideout before, too far out to see. I led us here, knowing there'd be supplies. We can't risk going across that wasteland without hardly any ammo."

"Now wait a minute." Sasha held her favorite SMG close. "What do you mean no ammo?!"

"Welcome to Promethea- where the toilet paper is single ply and the guns don't have bullets. We can make our own, but not enough for a machine gun."

A glimmer of hope made Rhys grin. “So you have to get creative.” He pulled out his stun baton and clicked the button. “I won't be useless after all!”

Athena nodded approvingly. “Rhys and Fiona can both use either very few or no bullets at all. They should come with me.” She glanced around at the group. “I'd prefer a fourth, though.”

Loader Bot stepped up. “I would be honored, if I was capable to fly in and rescue Rhys from his mistakes.”

Rhys sighed. "It's okay, LB. I owe you too much already.” 

"I'll go!" said Sasha. "I'm sure I can fight my way through."

Athena scowled. "Not with that injury, you won't."

Vaughn stood up as tall as he could, which wasn't saying much. "I'm a sniper, and I'm not bad at hand to hand combat. I'm down for some action!"

Athena surveyed the group and sighed. "Alright, I'll take what I can get."

Janey squeezed Athena's hand and gave her a quick kiss. "Be safe!"


	3. Chapter 3

Rhys's Echoeye definitely needed an update.

"AAAIEEAAAAAUUUGH!" screamed Rhys as a giant ferret with shark like teeth leapt at him, snarling as it grazed his leg. A small group of them had charged the party, encircling them and gnashing their teeth. Fiona and Athena responded fastest, quickly killing the creatures attacking them. Rhys had difficulty drawing his stun baton, kicking clumsily at the toothy pile of fur that seemed insistent on eating his pant leg. 

Vaughn was in the back, picking off any creatures on the fringe of the group with his rifle , but hesitating at the one attacking Rhys. "I can't get it without risking hurting you!"

Athena rolled her eyes. "I see there's only two vault hunters in the group!" She easily stabbed the ferret. "You're not bleeding, are you?"

Rhys shook his head. "No, but those things are not 'mostly harmless'!" He made air quotes to highlight his point. 

Fiona laughed. "Probably harmless compared to whatever else we'll find." She drew her derringer with a flick of her wrist. "Try to use an elemental advantage with that stun baton. We have to work together."

Athena nodded approvingly and Rhys smiled. "Thank you! I knew you cared-"

"I'll die too if you screw up." Fiona nudged Rhys as he deflated. "Oh come on, it's habit! I care!"

They continued past rocks and sand, and Vaughn sighed. "It's like Pandora, but darker and purple. Are there planets out there that don't try to murder you by looking at them?"

As if to prove his point, the ground in front of him started to ooze bright green slime, making Vaughn skip back. Fiona gestured to it. "You think that Mountain Dew is diet?"

Rhys's mind raced as the goo started to form. He pulled out his baton and backed up, looking at the cracked ground. "I'll make it diet for you!" He slammed the crackling baton into the ground and the goo bubbled and splurted.

Athena stabbed at the goo as best she could. The goo's color dulled and Rhys was ready to assume victory until more oozed up another crack a few yards away. Vaughn shouted as a tendril touched his leg. "EWWWW IT'S STICKY AND IT BURNS BUT I HAVE MORE OF A PROBLEM WITH IT BEING STICKY!" He kicked a rock at the goo and it retreated from the crack only to come back up.

"You know-" said Fiona as she swatted at an adventurous slime trying to take her hat, shooting it with electricity and frowning when it only disabled part of it. "Running is an option!" Goo burned her hand and she groaned, holding the chemical burned raw skin to herself. 

Athena grunted as she stabbed at it, finally resolving herself to the solution. "No- there's always a solution. Run back!" she commanded. She barely waited for them to clear the area before she took her shield and threw it so hard into the hollowed crust ground it sunk and expanded the cracks, forcing the ground they had been standing on to collapse and crumble away.

 

The shapeless monster let out a roar as it's cover was blown away.

"SHOOT IT!" Athena threw her shield deep into the now exposed mass of slime. The pit was the size of a house. The core of it glowed intensely and with Athena's shield and Fiona's bullet the blob liquified and dulled, almost hissing as it made a last reach at them steam rolling up into the sky.

"Damn." Vaughn scrubbed at his leg, relieved when the slime would come off. "Guess we just need some band aids and it'll be okay!"

"I'm glad you're okay," said Rhys. His heart beat a little too hard at the idea of Vaughn in danger, even though Vaughn could handle himself much better than Rhys. Athena settled with giving him a look, eyes too tired to roll anymore. 

Fiona aggressively wiped her hand off on her coat. "Ugh. This is never gonna come out!"

The old Atlas outpost they were looking for wasn't far across the wasteland. It was older than any of them on Pandora, almost foreign. It was plain, nothing to indicate Atlas at all but a small logo on the front building. The chipped concrete structure itself had sank slightly into the ground, and the only sign of life were rakklike creatures flying off the roof, disturbed by the group. 

Rhys scanned them, thinking they must have some horrible powers or condition that made them worse than actual rakk, but as his Echoeye confirmed- and as he was dive bombed- nope, just regular rakk. 

As expected- the only things powered on were the security systems. 

"Step forward and identity yourself," chimed a retinal scanner.

Fiona patted her jacket, feeling her pockets. "Damn it! Left General Pollux’s eyeball in my other coat."

Athena blanched. "You- it's- months????"

Rhys smoothed his hair back. "Back on Pandora, I have CEO credentials. Now I'm not sure if any Atlas tech will remember me out here, but it's worth checking if it updated over these last few months." Rhys put his eye up to the scanner.

The scanner beeped. "Ladies, Gentlemen, and anyone else- let me introduce to you the ONE, the ONLY- Rhys Talfryn, the most supermegafoxyawesomehot CEO in the galaxy."

Vaughn howled with laughter and Athena and Fiona gave Rhys looks. Rhys blushed hotly. "I- I uh. I never planned on opening doors in front of people!"

The door clanked open and they stepped through. One of the first things Vaughn did was pick up a busted pipe off the floor. "What?" He frowned as Rhys snorted.

Rhys grinned. "You a gangster or something?"

"I need a melee weapon. If I find something better, I'll take it."

"That's good thinking." Athena led the way. The overhead lights dimly flickered on and they took in the room. "If I didn't know better, I'd say this was Hyperion." 

They were standing in a research facility. Computer monitors were set up almost every few yards on counters between equipment like microscopes, beakers, syringes, scales, and piles of papers and notebooks strung haphazardly around the room. A few alien objects like their staffs and armor were on the walls almost like decoration in absence of goggle safety posters. The floor was uneven and the tiling damaged from the building sinking, with green mold growing in the cracks. What was most striking, however, was the center of the room.

A tank stood on an island counter, longer than a person. Inside was the corpse of an Eridian, still hooked with wires and electrodes. The outside was scrawled with Eridian writing, perhaps a message of warning or grief, the first Eridian graffiti even Athena had ever seen. A couple other tanks on the sides housed smaller dead bodies of smaller child sized Eridians. Even at that, the aliens in the tanks weren't the first victims. Several tabletops had labeled and sterilized bone pieces, too elongated and oddly curved enough to be human, and plenty for several complete skeletons. 

 

Fiona made a face. “Atlas only ever said they found technology here, not anything like this!"

"Guess this is part of why Eridians hate us so much, huh?" Vaughn sadly picked up a small skull. "I mean, aside from breaking into their vaults. Humans find a sentient alien race, and we capture them and tear them to shreds." 

Athena sighed. "Doesn't matter now. They'll try to kill us no matter what. Wish I could say I was surprised, but I'm not." She flipped through pages of a composition notebook. The walls had prints of radiology reports on bone structure and other notes, some highlighted and written on. "They were researching biology here. Apparently at this point in time, Atlas knew nothing about Eridium. They were searching for power inside the creatures themselves." 

Fiona watched Rhys as he searched drawers. "Isn't this exactly what Hyperion did?"

"Doesn't mean I think it's right." Rhys tapped the glass on a tank. He scanned anything that looked like it was final research, worth saving. "Hyperion injected people and animals with slag to watch them mutate and die. Something I don't think you and Sasha realize is how easy it was for Hyperion to charm you and make so many great promises that you'd be successful and live in paradise and reap the riches of a vault, when in reality everyone had an unspoken fear once Jack took over that you could be the next one kidnapped, tortured, or thrown out into space, all because you tried to quit or became obsolete."

Vaughn nodded, hand on Rhys's shoulder. Even saying Jack’s name had made Rhys even paler than his regular drywall state. "We could stay ahead of the game, but I couldn't walk down the hall without thinking I had some ghosts following me. Vasquez wasn't even an outlier as far as Hyperion went." 

They walked from the workspaces into the employee quarters, where the walls were stained with old blood and more Eridian writing. Human bodies decaying in lab coats lay slumped against walls and Vaughn pulled his scarf over his nose as the others gagged. Athena grimaced. "I think we all know what happened here. Search for anything useful, and we'll go."

Everyone set off to search lockers, bodies, and containers. They pooled together enough guns to arm a few more people, and a decent amount of ammunition with a case of precious medical supplies. Rhys, however, let out a laugh as he picked up a small device off of someone's bed. "An Atlas 3DS!"

Fiona glanced over Rhys's shoulder. Rhys opened the gaming console and switched it on, projecting the Atlas logo in 3D. "Is it valuable?"

Vaughn elbowed her aside. "It's cool! Ooooh look! Skag Crossing! Honestly these things are better than the Echo Super 3DS Lite XL remakes. Makes my watch look like nothing!"

Athena took the bulk of the weapons and ammo. "Before we go, I think you kids need to understand something.

"We see here what Atlas is capable of. We know that they've survived here and are more formidable than Vaughn's bandit camp of refugees. They are only loyal to each other. We are an opportunity. Not friends." Athena sighed. "What I'm saying is to not trust them. They certainly don't trust us."

Vaughn put his hands on his hips. "Not so different from what we know, I guess." His eyes traced over the Eridian weapon parts scattered around. He took a complete staff and slid a crystal in the tip, the end lighting up at his touch. "This should be better than a crowbar, right?" 

"Give me your crowbar then," said Fiona. She hefted it in her hand. "I don't want a staff. I don't trust Eridian things. What if it goes dead, like a toaster that stopped toasting your bread halfway through or something?" 

Rhys raised his eyebrows. "How does a toaster go dead?"

“Uhhhh, if it had like, batteries or something."

"You have BATTERY powered TOASTERS?"

"Pandora is a shitty place to live, okay? Leave my bad metaphors and battery powered toasters alone!"

"SHUSH!" Athena drew her sword. Heavy, uneven steps from outdoors approached the building and she sprinted out with no notice. "GET OUT!”

 

Finally, as they'd feared- an actual monster. 

The creature was about twenty feet tall and spider-like, with long legs supporting its wiry furry body. It only had one bulging eye but a barbed tongue, hissing and snapping its jaw. Athena threw her shield, aiming for the eye but it recoiled out of her path. 

"Ewwwwwww!" Vaughn sent a bolt of energy out of his staff at the creature, relieved when it at least grazed it and melted some of its furry flesh off its back. 

Rhys tried to scan it but came up with nothing but question marks. "Try to flank it! It only has one eye! So it'll have like, you know, no depth perception!"

Fiona ran to the other side of the creature to confuse it. "You mean peripheral vision!"

"Yeah! That!"

With the creature busy trying to track Rhys's bright stun baton and Vaughn's staff while lashing out at Fiona's general direction, nothing could prepare it for Athena slicing open its stomach from below. The partially disemboweled spider monster roared in agony and nearly crushed Athena under its weight. 

They stood proudly over their kill. Rhys, who'd done nothing but run around waving a stick, panted. "What a fight!"

Athena turned her back to it, not bothering to poke at the mass of flesh for any trinkets it might've swallowed. "That was small compared to what we could be facing. Remember to- AUGH!"

She gasped in pain as the monster hissed and stabbed her with its tongue with its dying breath. Vaughn fired directly into its eye and it sizzled and burst, oozing as the bug finally lay dead.

Fiona caught Athena from falling on the ground. The commotion had attracted the attention of the Eridians, as well as strange cries of creatures in the distance. Fresh blood, fools defenseless in the wasteland. They weren't in a good position. 

"Health vial!" Rhys fumbled with the injector and eventually pressed it into Athena's chest, eyes up at the horde of Eridians flying straight for them. "What do we do??? WHAT DO WE DO????"

-~-

"-and I'd put gelato, which is fancy as fuck ice cream, on top of a warm baked cookie. It's get all melty and soft and there's a bit of salted caramel so you get this sweet and touch of salty combo." August finished his description and smirked at the Prometheans almost drooling at his voice. "I gotta tell you, I know how to run a restaurant- even if it WAS just a cover for my ma's organized crime outfit. Drinks, dessert, skag that's edible- I got it all. You guys wanna know what comes in a mudslide? Remember what Irish cream tastes like?"

Sasha listened to him embellishing about the Purple Skag and grinned. "To be fair, the ice cream was regular old vanilla bean, and the cookie came premade. But it tasted great."

"Course, you helped me run the place." August leaned back and nodded at Sasha. "She makes the best drinks- aside from me." 

August and Sasha sat in the middle of a meeting room with Gortys and Loader Bot, providing much needed information and entertainment about Pandora. Sasha exchanged a look with August. "Wanna tell them about how Rhys lost ten million dollars?"

"That's my FAVORITE!" exclaimed Gortys with delight.

August rolled his eyes. "Okay- but that was a group effort, Sasha."

Janey watched them reenact their story with a fond smile on her face, sitting backwards on a chair and resting her chin on the back of it. Cassandra silently stood by her and Janey looked up at her. "Tell me honestly- how likely is it our plan will work? I've done crazy things, but we were always prepared."

Cassandra leaned against the wall. She opened her wings and conjured a spark of energy in her palm. "We're each other's best shot, is all I can say."

"Do you really plan to rebuild Atlas with Rhys?"

Cassandra shrugged. "Hard to know what I'll actually do but yes- that's the idea."

Janey stopped drumming her fingers. "That Eridian city can't be their only base on this planet, right? I know what they can do, I was on Elpis when they attacked. I saw a creature deflect bullets with its mind, seen hordes more of them than I'd like. If this is where they live, there must be more."

Cassandra nodded. "What do you think we've all been running from? This city of theirs is small. The Watcher only watches what is important, what matters to it."

Janey could barely breathe. "And what would that be?"

A crew member burst into their conversation. "The vault hunters are under attack! They drew attention to themselves!"

Cassandra ran outside and shot into the sky, wings fully spread. Her body glowed bright purple and she flew across the wasteland, a few miles from their ship. "HEY!" Energy crackled across her body as the swarm of Eridians left the four vault hunters alone and turned towards her. 

Eridians hissed and flew after her, readying their weapons and firing. Cassandra absorbed the energy and fired it right back, but the exhaustion on her face was clear.

Athena’s eyes snapped open as the health vial drained and she grunted, wavering but able to stand. “We gotta go!” She held a hand to her chest as they ran, barely able to keep up.

Rhys was just as winded as Athena was with her near fatal wound when they made it back thanks to the siren drawing the Eridians away. Athena settled down on a bed to be fussed over by Janey and Rhys simply flopped down with a groan, jealous of how Vaughn only looked like he'd just had a leisurely jog. “Body. Limbs. Uuuuuuuuuggh.”

Athena took off her upper armor to show off her stab wound. “Yeah, I got stabbed by a giant spider tongue.”

Rhys’s lungs were still burning, and he didn't care about trying to look tough in front of his crushes. “UUUUUUUUUUGH.”

“You need a glass of water or something?” Sasha stood over Rhys, trying not to laugh as Vaughn brought him a water bottle.

Janey examined Athena's back as Cassandra crashed into the ship, winded but unharmed. “Good thing you got healed right away. It's already scarring, nothing too bad. I'm too relieved to give you a speech about being careful.”

“It’s okay, I have it memorized.” Athena tried to look over her shoulder at it. “Is it attractive?”

Janey huffed. “Of course it is. My shirtless fiancé asking if any part of her is attractive.” Janey playfully tossed Athena's top armor and shirt at her as Athena gave her a rare smile, luckily not noticing a few people ogling at her bright purple bra.

Cassandra got up unscathed while Rhys slowly got over complaining. “It's the arm- heavy and cumbersome for running.”

Fiona’s mouth twitched. “Thought your ego is more cumbersome.”

“Okay yeah Fiona, humility is the real cure to asthma problems!”

Cassandra waved her arms. “Okay you two, you're both right! On whatever it is! We gotta formulate a plan.”

Janey folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. “Why don't you tell us what's on the rest of Promethea? You've kept that to yourself.”

Sasha reacted first, tension in the room almost palatable. She whirled around, still fierce despite her injury. “What’re you hiding?!”


	4. Chapter 4

Cassandra scoffed. She shook her head with a bitter smile as her crew looked on. “It never ceases to amaze me how much you don't know about Promethea. How forgotten we are. I haven't hid anything from you- how could I possibly hide a planet?! What you don't know is that compared to the rest of the surface, that Eridian city we have to go through may as well be a hamlet in the countryside!” 

Fiona tapped her foot aggressively, trying to not overtly panic. “So are you saying that we’re getting off easy by only having to go through a small village of pissed off aliens or that we’re about to have even more problems?”

“Probably both,” said Athena. She jerked her head in the direction they'd come from. “Eridians are an ancient species. For all the time they've been around, they never cared to wipe out humans until recently. I'm pretty sure Atlas struck first, as corporations do.”

A shadow crossed Janey's face. “They lost Elpis, but they're not the type to give up.”

“Bingo!” said Cassandra. “They want to murder every human on Pandora and Elpis, and they're gathering the means to do it. By taking me and my crew back to Pandora with you, we’ll have to come back through the portal and hit hard first.”

Sasha looked at the meager pile of goods they'd managed to find. There was maybe enough to arm five more people with ammunition. “What does Pandora have that we don't have already? You're looking at everyone who could help us.”

“No.” Rhys opened his palm and brought up an image of Sanctuary. “The flying city. There's a Siren- no, TWO Sirens on Pandora that Hyperion gathered intelligence on. Three total Sirens plus the rest of us, and whoever else we can find? This’ll work.”

Athena waved her hand through the hologram. “Are you crazy? Forget it. Lilith and her crew won't work with me after all I've done and after I escaped their custody. If we’re going back for that, we may as well forget it and strike now.”

Gortys hugged Athena around her legs, which would've resulted in a kick if it was anyone but Gortys. “We have to work together! Please?”

Loader Bot, as usual, agreed with Gortys. “It's not you working with Lilith. It's all of us, for Pandora.” 

“Think of it this way,” said August. “Lilith and her gang want vaults more than anything. It'll be a piece of cake getting them here if we promise loot.”

Vaughn looked at the ground. His shoulders slumped. “Not to sound like I'm running from a fight, but what's on Pandora worth saving? Why not evacuate? Save who we can? If the Eridians want humans out of their outer planet hair, we can give it to them.”

Fiona said ‘a few good souls’ at the same time Rhys said ‘beachfront property’ and the two exchanged a glance. “I guess our reasons are both good, right?” asked Fiona.

“Pandora is a place that deserves a chance.” Rhys drew himself up. “I've found people with more honor standing in this room than I have in years of living on higher class inner planets. There's time to start again, bring in resources and help. The thing is, is that we've been trying to do it by ourselves.

“Vaughn, you're a good leader but one bandit lord isn't enough for a global problem. I have Atlas but only as a shell of a company. Lilith has Sanctuary, and the rest of you, you know.” Rhys stammered. “You do things! And we've got to get everyone who can hold a gun and string together two sentences to rebuild Pandora and MAKE it a place worth saving outside of Wam Bam Island!”

Janey was nodding along. “We do tend to go every man and clan for ourselves. If we can break some barriers, we stand a chance.” 

“If I can work with ex-Hyperions, anything is possible,” joked Sasha. 

Cassandra, who widely didn't know any of the places and people mentioned, nodded sagely as if she knew what was going on. “Yes, perfect. Dramatic. Team building. Good. Sounds amazing! But we gotta get through that portal.”

Gortys spun over to Rhys and lit up, both metaphorically and in her mechanical eyes with excitement. “Hey Rhys! Didn't you have a really convoluted and complicated idea about how to get through that cave?”

Rhys grinned. “Indeed I did.”

-~-

The final day was spent stripping the ship of everything useful. Janey was especially delighted to tear apart old turrets and laser cannons, taking everything that might’ve been their last defense in one last hurrah against the Eridians. 

“Hey.” Sasha approached Rhys and nudged him. “You think we’re gonna make it?”

“We’ve made it out of some real messes before.”

Sasha looked into the distance at people sorting through half dead shields and mechanical parts of the ship turned into improvised weapons. “I tend to live a life of my own, Rhys. Even if, um. If we dated, I mean. I might get with you, but I wouldn’t live in a corporate setting. I’d pull my hair out.”

“Understandable.” Rhys’s mouth twitched. “Easier for me, less hair to have to pull.”

“Har har.”

“What will you do? You don’t need to pick pockets anymore.”

Less than a second later, Sasha triumphantly held up Rhys's Atlas DS as Rhys frantically patted his pocket. “Admit it though, I’m good at it.” She opened it and flicked the power on, watching as it booted. “I bet Vaughn went nuts for this.”

“You bet.”

“Enhance.” She laughed to herself as Rhys stared.

“What?” Rhys ignored it and took the DS back. “You know, Atlas Headquarters right now is in the middle of a beautiful alien jungle. It’s not a bad place to visit.”

“Might wanna fix the infrastructure before you take me on any more walks, okay?”

Rhys was overcome with the urge to kiss her, but held back as he saw Fiona out of the corner of his eye. “Uhhhhhhhh, hi.”

“Get a room, okay?” grumbled Fiona. She toyed with the revolving chambers on her derringer, unbothered by the fact that she interrupted them before anything could start. “I actually wanted to talk to Sasha, but you can hear it too. When all this is over, I might join up with Lilith. Be a true Vault Hunter. I was hoping you’d join me.”  
Sasha grinned. “The two of us together? Unstoppable. I can even come back from the dead.”

Fiona adjusted her hat, about to deliver questionable news. “I also want to track down Felix. Thank him. Get the whole story out of him.”

Something crossed Sasha’s face and she shifted, looking away from Fiona. In the past, Felix’s name would only spark anger. Now, it was something more subdued. “I want the whole story too. If he genuinely didn’t betray us- if it’s all true. He deserves better than what I thought of him.”

“Thank you, Sasha.”

“You’re welcome. It’s hard to accept that I was wrong, or that people can change. But I’m trying” Sasha gave Rhys a quick glance and then abruptly walked away. 

Fiona turned to Rhys. “I don’t know how she had it in herself to forgive you for trusting Jack back at the Atlas city. A secret like that could break her heart and believe me, she has more of a heart than I do.”

Rhys’s stomach flipped but he kept composed as Fiona walked away. He gulped and felt the eye implant in his pocket, practically burning him in his mind with the weight of the secret he carried. He knew why he hadn’t thrown Jack away, why he kept him so physically close. Jack was a weapon, a companion, an entire realm of possibilities.

Above all, Jack was a reminder of what Rhys had almost become. Rhys rubbed the rounded pupil of the eye, knowing without looking at it that the iris glowed frantic blue, never ending, never free from the void. He could hear the echoes of Jack pleading with him, begging like he hadn’t even when faced with Vault Hunters standing over the corpse of his Warrior, about to end his life.

Jack betrayed.

Rhys couldn’t.

-~-

Athena was used to fighting for herself, for laying waste without caring about the casualties of anyone behind her. Escorting a small town wasn’t going to be easy.

“We’ll be fine, Athena.” Janey could see the tension in her joints, the way her muscles refused to relax as she examined her perfect energy sword for imaginary damage, coiled tight and ready to spring.

Athena breathed deeply. “I’m not invincible. This shield can protect you and me and just about no one else. Escorting one person is bad. This is hell.”

Janey couldn't argue. She was on edge herself, knowing that nothing was guaranteed to work out in their favor. Her fingers nudged Athena's scarf aside to unclip her shoulder armor and massage her, kneading her muscles until she was forced to relax. “We’re in this together.”

“I never meant to drag you into these crazy sorts of adventures. Knowing you can get hurt has been eating at me.” 

“We’ll get out the same way we got in.” Janey kissed Athena's cheek. “With nothing according to plan and everything being a complete mess.”

“You're right. I love you, have I ever told you that?” Athena kissed Janey back.

“Love you too.” Janey guided Athena to their bed, intent on kissing her as much as possible. They fell over together onto the mattress and Janey relished in the laugh Athena let out as Janey landed suggestively between her legs, so rare to hear except for when they were alone. Janey shrugged out of her vest as Athena pulled her shirt off, leaving her in just a bra on top. “You're wearing too much, love.”

“I'll fix that.”

-~-

Early morning came too soon.

They approached the cave under the cover of darkness. While they didn't have much surprise, they did have first strike. Vaughn took position first, aiming his legendary sniper inside from behind a cluster of rocks. The best fighters with the Siren took the front, armed and ready. "Here goes," he said. Vaughn looked for the weakest support beam within range and fired a round.

The Eridians came down upon them immediately. A flurry of battle broke out as Cassandra shot into the sky and blasted them with energy, but it wasn't enough. Heavy turrets with energy shields emerged out of almost every building imaginable and all pointed for the mass of people at the door, forcing Cassandra on defense. Athena led the people on the ground, conservatively shooting back. Rhys and Sasha shared the stun baton and beat back any Eridians that got close.

But they were barely holding their ground.

Their plan was destined to fail.

"It's not working!" yelled Vaughn. He fired round after round and only scratched and dented the support beam. "Athena!"

Athena growled and threw her shield as hard as possible at the beam Vaughn was trying to weaken. 

However, their diversion did nothing and the E-tech turrets broke through Cassandra's shielding and hit August in the chest.

He staggered, mouth open in silent shock.

He gasped in pain and sank to his knees, eyes falling closed. 

August fainted, deaf to the cries of concern or people running away in fright. 

"AUGUST!" Vaughn left his futile task of trying to shoot the supports to the city and bolted to August, taking a couple hits to his shield as he carried him a few yards away. Sasha fired back at the Eridians, trying to cover Vaughn as he searched for a health kit.

"RETREAT!" yelled Cassandra, although no one needed telling twice.

In the midst of the chaos, Rhys had a better idea.

His eye lit up and he focused on the turrets, concentrating so hard he looked like he was doing calculus while constipated. Fiona commented as much.

"If we can use E-Tech, the most powerful technology available against the Eridians themselves, we can get through! I just-" Rhys grimaced. Hacking was difficult on a good day, but not in a language he didn't even know. "I can't."

August's eyelids fluttered and he moaned as the medicine worked its way through his bloodstream from his arm to his chest. "Owwwwwwwww my bodyyyyyyyy."

Fiona growled at Rhys. "Try harder! I believe in you!" She only sounded slightly sarcastic.

Purple swirling characters floated in Rhys's head and he closed his eyes, putting his face in his hands as he was hit with a migraine. His EchoEye had enough and rebooted itself, forcing Rhys to go blind in one eye as he clumsily followed the rest of the group and ran away. 

The Eridians almost followed them all the way to the crashed Electra but turned back, sensing victory. Everyone ran inside worse for wear and lower on ammunition.

"We should've charged through!" Athena pounded her fist on a table. "Some of us could've made it!"

Loader Bot wasn't convinced. "It might take everyone to open the portal."

"I don't care!" Athena's blood boiled and she didn’t hide it, seeing as anyone who valued their lives stepped back. "I'm not going to risk my fucking life for people whose names I don't even know!"

"My name is Jerry," supplied one of Cassandra's crew.

Janey jerked her head in Jerry's direction. "Would you really leave Jerry to die?"

"Yes!"

Arguments broke out about who knew whose names and exactly how important Jerry was as an individual person in the cosmos but quieted as August coughed roughly. He was laid down on a table, shirt and vest off. The surprise, however, was that he was wearing a bulletproof vest.

"Oh thank God," breathed Sasha. "You and your- your stupid vests!"

"Is he okay?" asked Gortys.

Vaughn tossed away the bullet that had impacted August out of the vest and opened it, grimacing. "No, not really."

August's skin was stained red and purple along his ribs with blood dotting the surface of the impact. Each breath was labored and he caught Sasha's hand before she could touch him. "Don't. I know it's broken. One or two ribs for sure. Bearable- barely."

"You need to rest," said Janey.

"No shit." The insult only made Janey grin.

"Feeling better already, I see."

Athena paced, sour and determined. "We'll scour this planet for any more weapons. We'll do whatever it takes to get back to Pandora. I'll do it my damn self if I have to!"

“No.”

Rhys stood in the center of the room, dread heavy in his stomach. “I know no one probably wants to hear another plan from me-”

“Correct,” said Cassandra.

“-but I know what to do.” He gestured to where they'd come from. “If we can use the Eridian’s own weapons against them, we can win. They'll have to be hacked to work for us, letting us slip through as they battle their own defenses. Problem is, I can't hack it.”

Fiona folded her arms. “That's a pretty big problem.”

“I can't hack it either,” said Loader Bot. “I don't understand your plans where I don't swoop in to the rescue.”

“It's okay LB. Thing is,” said Rhys, drawing his hand out of his pocket and holding up his old eye. “I know someone who can.”


	5. Chapter 5

“No.” Fiona shook her head. “Jack almost killed us-”

“Yes, ALMOST,” said Rhys. He tapped the side of his head by his port. “If there's anyone here who should be scared of him it's me. I ripped out my own goddamn eye and arm from my body, but I think I can convince him one more time to help us.”

Sasha didn't look enraged, which encouraged Rhys, but she was downcast. Disappointed. It somehow felt much worse. “Why wouldn't you kill him?”

Athena's face was stony and her grip on her sword tight. "I helped Nakayama make that thing. It should be destroyed. I worked with Jack in his 'good' days, and he can't be trusted. He was a lunatic back then."

Rhys blinked. "And the reason you haven't already cut my hand off is because you know I'm right."

Fiona took his moment of being distracted to snatch the eye out of his hand. Rhys spun around and she held it close to her chest. "If anyone should be making a deal with the devil, it's me. You're the one Jack manipulated into destroying Helios!"

"You have no sway over Jack-"

"Neither do you!" Fiona hissed. "Either you let me talk to him first, or- or I'll do something!"

Rhys narrowed his eyes. "Fine. If Vaughn goes with you to talk." He handed over the Atlas DS and turned it on. "Stick the wires into the cartridge reader. He's probably resourceful enough to get in."

As much as Rhys wanted to argue, he couldn't help but feel that Fiona had a point. Watching her walk away with Jack felt like losing a piece of himself- literally. He swallowed hard and prayed Jack wouldn't try anything stupid. 

 

Rhys sat in the corner, twiddling his thumbs and trying to look unapproachable, which meant that Loader Bot tried to talk to him. "There there," said Loader Bot, mechanically patting Rhys on the head.

"Are you mad at me for keeping Jack?"

"Human logic often eludes me." Loader Bot gave Rhys as emotional of a look as a robot could. "You care about that AI, proving you care about me. It is... comforting."

"I do care about you." Rhys sighed. "I can't just let Jack die. Not when he has a second chance like this."

-~-

Vaughn flicked the DS on and set it down on a table. Fiona and Sasha stood on either side of him, Fiona with the eye in the palm of her hand. "I can't believe we're doing this," said Sasha.

"Me neither." Fiona held up the frayed ends of the wires and stuck them in the bottom of the game console. "Here goes nothin'."

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then the blue faded from the eye and the screens lit up bright blue. It flickered erratically until the 3D projector kicked in and the AI Jack stood in front of them, face in his hands and floating, clawing at his hairline. He didn't seem to know he wasn't alone.

"Jack?" asked Vaughn.

Jack jerked his head up. He narrowed his eyes and shook his head. No anger or rage or screams of freedom. Jack just sat down and sighed. "Even my hallucinations aren't right. Glasses Face doesn't have glasses." 

Sasha groaned. "Just smash it, it's lost its mind!"

"No." Fiona folded her arms and approached Jack, who looked up at her. "We're real and we need your help."

Jack seemed to accept that she was real. He stood back up and looked around. "Where's Rhys?"

"Not here. You're dealing w-"

"RHYS!" shouted Jack as loud as he could through the DS speakers. "Take me to him, I have to talk to him! You don't get it!"

Fiona leaned in closer. "You used him for what you wanted! Rhys isn't coming near you, Jack."

Jack deflated. "I can't help you with whatever it is unless I talk to Rhys."

"We need you to hack into Eridian turrets and attack them while we run through a portal back to Pandora," said Vaughn. "It'll help Rhys, if that makes you feel better." 

Jack didn't look the way he used to. His edges were more frazzled, his blue a different hue. "Rhys. I need Rhys. He can fix me."  
Jack paced, agitated and frowning. "Please."

Fiona shook her head. "Tell me what's wrong with you, aside from the obvious?"

Jack was still so melancholic, so drained. It was more worrying than the bouncing homicidal energy Jack usually had. It was unpredictable. "Rhys needs to fix my code. I'm being corrupted, tiny pieces becoming disjointed inside that broken eye. Please, I'm BEGGING, I have to see Rhys!" He might've even made a noise close to a sniffle. "I can feel myself being erased, losing myself, detail by detail in this emptiness."

"Why did you crash Helios?" asked Sasha.

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me? Rhys did. On a scale of one to ten, that kid reacted with a seventeen."

Vaughn wanted in too. "Why did you try to kill Rhys in the first place? Your plan made no sense!" 

"Another reason I have to see Rhys!" Jack exclaimed. "I did what Nakayama programmed me to do. I need him to tweak my behavioral code. I'm so desperate I'm not even making hat fetish jokes and there's a hat in the room! Come on!"

Jack's eyes were round and doe-like, but no one budged for a minute, no one wanted to admit surrender to Jack's pleading and get Rhys. "Fine," said Vaughn. "I'll get him."

 

Rhys, as it turns out, was practically listening with his ear pressed to the door with a program open on his palm to hack into the locked door. Vaughn glared at him as the door slid open and Rhys did a terrible job of feigning innocence. "Wow! The door opened! What a crazy random happenstance!"

“Really bro?” said Vaughn.

Rhys ignored everyone else but Jack and rushed in, sighing in relief. "Jack."

"Listen kiddo, I need help." The DS beeped and Jack's form solidified as he fully saved himself to it. "I need you to do some non invasive code surgery. If you don't, I'll betray you. I'll be forced to betray you!" Jack aggressively messed up his hair.

"Nakayama made me to be exactly like Jack!" Jack crackled with energy out of frustration. "He thought Jack was perfect, so I'm always going to be Jack at that exact time his brain was scanned. I KNOW it's stupid to betray you, to try and get us all killed, but you're talking about a guy who had no real friends, who- who couldn't trust anyone! And I know this!" Jack was crestfallen again. "Please fix me so I don't hurt you." 

Rhys was sympathetic, but Sasha kept her guard up. "How do we know you're not lying just to get Rhys to- to I dunno, get inside you?"

"Sweetheart, I have BEEN inside Rhys and-"

"Ooooooookay so anyway!" Rhys interrupted, blushing.

"Be careful." Jack winced as Rhys's eye booted up. "AIs can feel it when you erase them. It's torture."

Sasha and Fiona clearly thought Rhys should play around as much as possible. "Don't hold back, Rhys," said Fiona.

Rhys ignored her. "I need to be alone." He pulled up a chair next to the table and settled down.

"Why?" accused Sasha. 

"I have to concentrate cause listen-" Rhys glared at Sasha and Fiona. "There's no Nice Person switch in here. I can't just delete a chunk of code that says Asshole.exe. I have to be careful and leave him almost intact so he can help us, okay? Get me a coffee, if you really want to help." He sighed. “I don't mean to snap at you guys. Just stressed about stuff like saving a bunch of people based on this AI that nearly killed us all, yanno?”

Rhys used his cybernetics and hacked into the DS, into Jack. It was difficult finding everything he thought he needed to change in such a complex AI. Jack rested his head on the joystick of the DS and Rhys grinned as he typed in code and watched Jack fall asleep.

Months of isolation must be exhausting. 

He concentrated hard, barely moving from his position as he mentally and physically tapped away inside his mind or on his arm's holographic display. Rhys didn't even realize someone had brought him a famous Atlas latte until it was only lukewarm to the touch. 

Finally, Rhys rebooted the DS and waited. Jack flickered into existence and looked down at himself, as though he hadn't seen his hologram body before. "Did you give me computer drugs or something? I feel like I just had a good night's sleep, not a lobotomy."

"You had a bit of a lobotomy so you can sleep," said Rhys gently. "You're able to change. Make your own choices past just what Jack knew in life. Honestly you should probably feel great. Anger isn't your first impulse anymore. You're not quite as aggressive."

Jack narrowed his eyes. "Why wouldn't you program me to never betray you? Why take a risk for me? You know what I'm capable of."

Rhys smiled sadly. "Someone once told me that you look out for your team. I want you to be a hero, Jack. I-" He swallowed hard. "I want to know the man whose footsteps I tried to follow in for so long can be a hero. I know I haven't been one most of my life. Maybe- maybe I can change too." 

Jack listened intently. "Boy that's some deep shit, kid."

"Yeah, I mean, I gotta come out of this smarter somehow. Maybe the real treasure are the life lessons I learned with my friends!"

Jack snorted. "I'm lactose intolerant, any more cheese and I'll fart so bad Lilith with smell it."

Rhys chuckled. "Yup, still Jack."

Rhys proudly carried the DS out and Jack waved at the crowd of scavengers and Vault Hunters. "Let's go murder some Eridians and go home! To a different dumpster planet!"

Cassandra, as well as pretty much everyone else in the room, wasn't thrilled. "He's reprogrammed to help us? You know for sure?"

"Yes," Rhys said. 

"Another Siren! I've met two thirds of you now!" exclaimed Jack with little to no social awareness. "What's your weird power? Don't tell me it's weak or that you can heal shit. No one cares unless you can make geysers of blood-"

"You SURE he's programmed correctly?" snapped Athena. "Doesn't seem very friendly to me."

Rhys rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish look at the DS. "He won't betray us, but I had to keep him as intact as I could. Jack is gonna be making inappropriate comments the whoooole time."

As if to prove his point, Jack chimed in. "Rhys isn't the best friend I wished for. Could've made my dick bigger but he didn't."

"Let's go home." August stood up with a grimace, holding a hand over his broken rib. "And you assholes are paying me double for this."

-~-

Rhys led the group by several yards, holding Jack out in front and waiting until the AI could hack into the turrets. Sasha stayed close to him, glaring at the DS behind Jack's back. "You're crazy."

"I know."

"I thought you were different."

Rhys stopped, accidentally stopping the entire group behind them. "I may have grown, but my past is my past. Jack was a huge part of my life for a long time. As a friend or anything else, you're gonna have to deal with that."

"Asshole."

Rhys walked faster. As much as it upset him, his relationship with Sasha wouldn't matter if they were all dead. 

The DS beeped and Jack started to vanish. Rhys's heart lurched as he remembered the last time he let Jack get out of his control. Rhys's distress must've showed and Jack winked just before the last few pixels disappeared. "I'm a hero, baby."

Nothing.

A few more seconds passed as they waited with baited breath. Rhys felt miserable as though he'd failed a whole group project and he was going to die knowing it was all his fault.

Blue flickered over the turrets and their shields fully activated. Heavy hinges creaked as the turrets suddenly rotated away from the outskirts and pointed at the Eridians, within a second opening fire at any Eridians in sight with the ghost of Jack's maniacal laugh echoing in the cavern.

"MOVE IT!"

Sasha's cry jolted the group into action.

The group stampeded forward, going around the city. Sasha and anyone else who was armed fired into the swarms of Eridians struggling to fight their own technology as Jack fought mercilessly. 

Rhys clutched the DS as he ran, panting and wheezing. His lungs burned and he stumbled, floundering as people raced by. Vaughn ran beside him, taking shots with his sniper whenever it was clear. "You even hitting anything?!"

"No idea!" Vaughn looked over his shoulder at Rhys for an instant. "But I won't leave you behind bro!"

Rhys thought of Sasha and checked on her, watching as she made it rain bullet casings in her wake, so much more agile than Rhys. Fiona breezed past him with Gortys rolling by right in front of her. 

The only one who couldn't keep up was August.

He stubbornly tried to jog but the distance and his broken and bruised rib held him up. He struggled and his face was pale and teeth clenched with pain. August made eye contact with Rhys and very slightly shook his head.

"No," said Rhys.

"What?" asked Vaughn, whipping his head around and seeing August lagging behind by about twenty yards. "August!" 

One of the several turrets Jack controlled finally broke, the gun blasted off the building it was mounted to entirely and crashing into the purple lake. A few Eridians were spared the barrage of the remaining turrets and bolted forward to the group, seeking out August as the weakest.

"AUGUST!" Vaughn charged back with the sniper scope pressed to his eye, firing as fast as possible and hitting home with every single one. Rhys drew his stun baton and followed, a rush of pride and nostalgia flooding him for the first time he'd ever set foot on Pandora with a stun baton in his hand going up against far more than he could handle with Vaughn at his side. It was bizarre to long for the rough, sandy wild towns of Pandora and the luminous jungle that had become Atlas's home compared to the luxury he'd had on Helios, but Rhys had grown fond of it.

Perhaps Rhys had grown more as a person than he'd thought, as he threw his body in front of August and into fire, swinging his stun baton and praying his shield was as good as advertised. 

"RHYS!" Sasha and Fiona called to them from the edge of the cavern, unable to come to the rescue.

August hobbled as best he could. "You guys- should've left me."

"Shut up," insisted Rhys.

"No ones getting left behind, not even you," promised Vaughn. "We can hold them off."

As Rhys's baton sent several Eridians flying, the turret closest to the small group turned and fired at the Eridians attacking them. With the extra coverage, they fled and made it to the edge of the cavern as well.

"Go on ahead," said Rhys. He held out the DS as it searched for a signal. "I gotta get Jack out."

August shook his head but didn't stop walking. "You're insane."

"Rhys, we have to hurry!" Vaughn watched the DS screen and the fight. "Once Jack leaves the turrets, every Eridian will be on our tail!"

"He's coming," said Rhys. He couldn't leave Jack, not after everything. Rhys ducked behind a rock and waited more for Jack to come back. A sense of dread overwhelmed him as he realized he'd unleashed an AI with a pretty bad track record with power into an alien system that could do heaven knows what. "Come on!" he hissed.

"Rhys!" Fiona shouted down the tunnel. "Hurry up you idiot!"

The DS lit up blue and Rhys bolted down the tunnel with Eridians on his tail. 

Cassandra had gotten to the vault arch first, frantically banging her fists against the stone. "IT'S NOT WORKING!"

Sasha patted the wall and kicked it. "Everyone who came here with us, touch it!" 

Rhys ran into the wall at high speed and groaned, weak and bruised as he slumped against the sealed portal. "Fuck."

A small object bumped his leg and Rhys looked down at Gortys. She nudged him aside and also touched the wall. "I could summon the monster, so maybe I can get us back to Pandora?"

The instant Gortys said 'Pandora' the world went white.


	6. Epilogue

By the time of their wedding, Janey and Athena had to a lemon cake to their cake collection. Vault hunters could eat more cake than the average human being could or should. It wasn't Janey but Athena who'd cried while giving her vows, bashfully trying to hide her face in her scarf while Janey comforted her in front of the group.

"Athena- Athena it's okay."

"I- I LOVE you, I'm, I-"

"I know."

"People. In front of people!"

"Yes, it is a wedding, we all know."

Athena had been hesitant to invite so many people, but once the presents started to pile up she'd suddenly gotten much more willing. 

Loader Bot had a small book in his hands behind Janey and Athena. "Are you ready to proceed?"

Janey held Athena's hand and grinned. "Don't hide your face, Athena. No one in this room thinks we're virgins."

Athena and much of the room laughed and Loader Bot continued. "By the power vested in me by... the law, I now pronounce you wife and wife. You may now- oh."

It was hard to tell who'd kissed who, but the room was filled with cheers and wolf whistles. 

After the wedding party Rhys loitered outside after extending a formal congratulations from Atlas, and getting a friendly kick in the shin from Athena. "Damn," he muttered, feeling his leg. "Thaaaaat's gonna bruise. Ow owoww."

"Rhys." Sasha leaned against the doorframe, an alcoholic fruit drink in her hand with an umbrella and lime wedge in it. She'd dressed up for the party and Rhys couldn't help noticing the fresh painted nails and how every lock of hair was perfect. "Hey."

Rhys took her free hand in his and gave her a quick kiss. "Hey." 

 

“What you did, saving August.” Sasha paused. “That was noble of you.”

“I can be surprisingly honorable sometimes.”

Sasha smiled at him. "So. How's this going to work between us?" Sasha took a sip of her drink. "I mean, I'm gonna be looking for... stuff to do. I can drop by sometimes."

Rhys helped himself to some of her drink, figuring it was free anyway. "About that- I was hoping you'd join me at Atlas for awhile. Not at a desk job per se." Rhys swirled the bright liquid around in the glass. "You know guns and weaponry much better than I do, and I figure designing your very own line of SMGs would be a dream job."

Sasha stared. "Wait- really?"

"Yeah. If you want."

Sasha leapt up in the air and pumped her arm. "Hell YES! Atlas AND my signature on something? Oh my god. Oh my god. I'm gonna make some incredible stuff. You'll be AMAZED!" 

"Great! And you know, you can stay awhile."

Sasha kissed Rhys and purposely messed up his gelled hair. "I plan to."

"Rhys! Oh. H-hey? Guys." Rhys and Sasha broke apart and Vaughn awkwardly stood by them with two drinks and a bundle of flowers in his hand, eyes downcast. "Um. I think. I made a mistake, so like, I'm gonna go, and uh, just forget what you saw-"

"Wait." Sasha gently dragged Vaughn by the arm to them. His face was pink and he was trying to not look at either of them and Rhys felt his heart break.

"Vaughn- I'm so sorry."

"It's okay bro, but I gotta go and-"

Sasha sighed heavily. "Stop with the drama! We're adults here, right? I'm not as good at reading people as my sister, but it's been clear to me that dating Rhys is a Buy Rhys Get Vaughn Free deal. I know you both, and you're allowed to like more than one person. I sort of assumed Vaughn would be with us."

Vaughn nodded along. "Really? I feel like I just barged in here, but if it's really okay then I'd be down for a polyamorous relationship. We all know each other, right? It makes sense."

Rhys blinked. He couldn't believe it was as simple as this. "You guys don't mind sharing me? I mean you can even have each other if you like."

Sasha winked at Vaughn and Vaughn laughed. "Oh, well. I don't have anything against girls, but I seem to be only attracted to them in theory."

She laughed. "In theory?"

Vaughn nodded and Rhys covered his mouth and snorted. Vaughn turned to Rhys and grinned. "I mean I've called myself bisexual all this time but like, I only ever crush on guys, but girls are really nice!"

"Bro." Rhys threw his arm around Vaughn and gave him a hug from the side. "That's gay." 

Sasha pulled them both into a hug, spilling someone's drink on the ground in the process. "Whoops. Well, you're gonna have to compete with the tour guide lady for best in bed, Rhys."

In that moment rhys could see a future of romantic walks in the jungle, adventures, motorcycle rides, video games, alcohol, fancy dinners, and simple fun pleasures with Sasha and Vaughn, sometimes together and sometimes separate. It was everything Rhys could wish for.

Rhys and Vaughn grinned and Vaughn set their remaining drinks aside with the flowers. “Okay bro. I'm. Uh. I'm nervous.”

Rhys’s heart fluttered and he glanced at Sasha, who was tapping her foot. “Come on guys, you've only known each other for years and years. Should I look away?”

“No, it's okay,” said Vaughn, locking eyes with Rhys, grey blue looking into mismatched gold.

“We gotta do it bro,” said Rhys, putting his hands on Vaughn's hips.

“Yeah. We gotta.” Vaughn looked dazed with a wide grin to match.

“Years dude, years! We’re bad at this.”

“I know- I know oh my god you're too tall for me!”

“It'll- it'll be good. How hard is kissing anyway?” 

“I don't know, but no backing out now.”

“Locked in. No way out of this.”

“It's gonna be now, it's gonna be aaany minute.”

“You ready?”

“Doesn't matter, this is happening live.”

“This is gonna taste like cake.”

“It’ll be a piece of cake, literally.”

“Okay. Here we go.”

“Once in a lifetime chance right here, can't miss it.”

“That's right, just gotta commit. Just gotta like, you know-” Rhys rushed in and lifted Vaughn a couple inches off the ground as he kissed him, laughing as he felt Vaughn's arms around his neck as they twirled for a moment in utter bliss.

-A week later-

Dawn touched the wild lands of Pandora just as it always did, to the cries of skags and roars of beasts without proper name. The floating city of Sanctuary was quiet save for the heavy beats of music from Moxxi's bar and the sleepy footsteps of those who were just barely leaving said bar.

"You cannot expect me to believe these stories of Promethea on your word alone." Lilith glared at Rhys. "Hyperion."

Rhys was in his element. Hair slicked back, the fanciest outfit and waistcoat he could possibly find with his favorite impractical shoes- heeled boots. He was striking, elegant, and practically smelled expensive. Alien. Something of a threat to the rugged city. "It's Atlas, and nor would I expect you to. You've heard it yourself from a fellow Siren and the accounts of many people who would have nothing to gain from lying to you. The Eridians are ready to wage war and the Vaults have moved."

Lilith looked out at the view of Pandora of water glistening on lakes and rivers. "You were working with the likes of Athena, you're ex-Hyperion. There must be something here for you to gain and nothing for me to trust."

"You're a vault hunter. Don't lecture me about personal gain and the pursuit of treasure. I'm asking for teamwork, here."

"You waltz in and think I'm gonna be impressed with your fake siren tattoo and high heels? Aren't you tall enough?" Lilith rolled her eyes. "I'll find this Gortys robot you have and open the damn portal myself. If any of that is even true!"

Rhys grinned. "Gortys destroyed a vault monster, I wouldn't push her." A little misinformation never hurt. 

Lilith looked as though she might cave, but stomped her foot. Creases of worry lined her face and she put her head in her hands. "This is a mess. Should've heard the earthquakes. It felt like pieces of the planet were being blasted off. Psychos have been acting stranger than usual. And-" she cut herself off.

"And what?"

"Need to know basis, Hyperion."

Rhys nodded sagely. "Athena briefed me on you. You're a dangerous individual to piss off."

"Only good thing she's ever said."

Rhys reached into his pocket and pulled out a small object. He unfurled his fingers around it and Lilith stared with amazement. "Which is why I brought my lucky D20."

"That's- oh my god it's so awesome! Where'd you get that?!" Lilith gushed. The die was pewter with ornate carvings all around the numbers, painted delicately in the crevices. 

Rhys rolled the die on top of a dumpster. "For my diplomacy check, I got a-" he peered at it. "Two. Plus 40 for my charisma modifier!"

Lilith laughed. "Okay- so if I get to keep that die, I'll show you everything."

"It hurts me, but deal."

Lilith led him through town to the Crimson Raiders headquarters. "This door is usually kept locked now, and I'm going to show you why. I think there is something going on with the vaults. It started just about when you say vaults materialized on Promethea.”

Doctor Tannis was scribbling frantically on papers on her desk, hunched over with bloodshot eyes and not even reacting to a stranger entering the room. “Hey Tannis,” said Lilith, clearly not expecting a response. All around the room was the same phrase written over and over again, large and small and in all caps. 

DO

NOT

OPEN

THE

VAULTS

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you SO much for reading!!! I really had a blast with this event, Borderlands Big Bang 2017. I wanted to add in the hints in battleborn and Easter eggs about BL3 and make a fic connecting tftbl to BL3 <3


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